Weight of your Words
Podcast Episode 198
January 14, 2026
GUEST:
Tracey Piparo & Jennifer O’Brien
In this special episode of Difficult Conversations, Liz Poret-Christ hosts in memory of her husband Ken, whose voice you hear in the show’s intro/outro and who passed away about a year ago from glioblastoma. Liz shares how that loss and the painful reality that palliative care and hospice are often introduced far too late sparked the conversation. She welcomes two guests, Tracey Piparo, a longtime physician associate who transitioned from emergency medicine to palliative care because she realized patients and families weren’t being truly heard, and Jennifer O’Brien, a healthcare leader and author of The Hospice Doctor’s Widow, who became an advocate for “death literacy” after caregiving for her late husband through a 22 month cancer illness. Together, they lay the groundwork for why these services matter: palliative care can support quality of life alongside curative treatment, while hospice focuses on comfort and support at end of life.
The heart of the episode tackles why clinicians “dance around” these conversations: fear of failure, discomfort with mortality, a high-achiever culture that equates death with losing, and confusion about palliative versus hospice. Liz shares her personal story of repeatedly asking when to involve palliative care, only to be told “not yet,” until a hospice physician finally stated plainly that Ken was actively dying, leaving little time to prepare family and say goodbye. Tracey explains how avoiding clarity can rob patients of informed choices and argues communication should be treated like a clinical procedure, trained, practiced, and supported by specialists when needed. Jennifer adds a compassionate framework her late husband used “precious time” to help families understand when it’s time for the most important conversations (“I love you,” “I’m sorry,” “I forgive you,” “thank you”), and emphasizes that preparing for end of life doesn’t destroy hope, it reshapes it. The episode closes with a strong call for both clinicians and families be clear, ask early, bring in palliative support sooner, and replace “but and or” with “and” so care can hold “hope” and preparation at the same time.
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